You gaming geeks will understand. From Foxtrot.
February 07, 2010
April 09, 2009
RIP Dave Arneson
Another sad day for gaming....
"Dave Arneson, born in 1947, an American game designer, teacher and entrepreneur and the co-creator of the seminal Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, passed away on Tuesday, April 7, after a long battle with cancer. He is survived by his wife and daughter."
Read more here.
December 12, 2008
From Mental Floss: Skin Disease or D&D Character?
The game is simple: we'll give you a name, you choose if it's a skin disease or a character from the realm of Dungeons and Dragons. Get all 16 right and you're qualified to be either a dermatologist or a dungeon master, so pretty much all doors are open.
June 18, 2008
June 06, 2008
Myths about Girl Gamers
A list that the girl gamer in my group passed along....
Girl gamers. Evidently, we’re difficult to figure out. Lucky for you, I’ve compiled this nifty little handbook to give you some hints.
1.We want to control the entire game... and you.
You think we want control of such a rag-tag group of guys? I’d rather go bobbing for apples in a deep fryer. If I wanted to control you, I’d show up at the game with a chair and a whip. Sit and ponder that, friend.
2.We’re there because you’re there.
A girl gamer, a REAL girl gamer, is there because she wants to be. Let me ask you this: Do you think you’re charming enough to make a girl unwillingly spend an entire evening with a bunch of people who get that excited about rolling dice? I thought not.
3.We make an effort to date every gamer in the group.
You got us there. We actually keep lists of the gamers we haven’t dated yet, and we check them off as we go. I got extra Girl Gamer Points (GGPs) because I dated all the eligible guys in our group and then managed to cause a major schism, causing half the people to quit talking to the other half. I traded my GGPs in for some rulebooks and a new dice bag and now I’m on the lookout for new victims… Get real.
4.We should be in charge of dinner and/or cleanup.
The next time you think about saddling the girl gamer with dinner preparations, consider her character first. If she’s playing a bitter extraterrestrial terrorist who hates everyone without provocation and dabbles in torture on the side because it’s fun, it’s probably not a good idea to ask. If her character is primarily engaged in kissing up and crocheting, go ahead. Ask.
5.We’re only interested in playing sex kittens or innocent ingénue-types.
Hello, Pot. I’m Kettle. You’re black.
Sure, girl gamers have schticks. So do you, Mr. Lone Wolf… and you, Mr. Combat Monster. And, while we’re at it, let me ask you a question… How many of your characters wear black trenchcoats? Whose brilliant idea was it to give all the bad-asses black trenches?
6.We are utterly incapable of understanding the rules.
Once, I heard a gamer comment, “Hey, man, she’s a girl. Girls don’t get the rules; it’s like a math thing or something.” Buddy, I’ll out-math you any time… and then I’ll tear you into tiny little pieces and eat you for breakfast. We are quite capable of understanding the rules, if you’d explain them in something that approximates English, or loosen your death-hold on the rulebook and just let us read them for ourselves.
7.We flutter our eyelashes at GMs to get our way.
I did that once. The GM very politely gave me what I wanted and, then, I realized I didn’t want it after all (because, as we all know, a good GM gives you what you want and then makes you regret having ever asked). The end result was that I had to extract my foot from my mouth. If you let girl gamers walk all over you as a player or a GM, more fool you. You need to get out and date more, friend.
8.We hate other girl gamers.
Well, sure! Why not? After all, other girl gamers might hog all the GGPs and then we’d be out some valuable prizes. We have to protect our territory, after all. Get real. If a true girl gamer can’t stand another girl in your group, it’s either a personal thing or maybe that girl is one of those fake-scheming-break-up-the-group types we’ve been discussing.
9.We don’t appreciate a good combat.
Correction: We do appreciate a good combat. What we don’t do is a) get sexually aroused over it or b) spend hours upon hours memorizing the caliber and number of shots for a revolver that was last used with regularity in the 1950s. We’ve got better things to do than memorize gun statistics. Like planning out how to spend out GGPs, for instance.
10.Because we are girls, you cannot hope to understand anything about us, including our roleplaying.
Well… maybe there’s a bit of truth in that one, after all.
March 26, 2008
Tributes to Gary Gygax
There are some very clever tributes out there to D&D pioneer Gary Gygax:
First, an article, "Geek Love" in the New York Times, featuring this flow chart of geek life...
Second, an MIT Prank Tribute:
Third, Stephen Colbert, who grew up playing D&D and wrote an article for "Thirty Years of Adventure: A Celebration of Dungeons & Dragons"
David+
June 14, 2007
Virtual Murder in the Cathedral
Stop Shooting Things in Manchester Cathedral
One of the big stories in Anglican News this week is the outrage being generated that Manchester Cathedral has apparently been used as a model for a first-person shooter game from Sony. There is a write-up here, along with a YouTube walkthrough.
I agree this is an issue, but it's still a little less scary than "Left Behind: Eternal Forces" where God is used as a power-up. (See A Game that does violence to the Gospel)
David+
Technorati Tags: anglican, Cathedral, christianity, episcopal, games, gaming, humor, violence
April 27, 2007
R.I.P. Dungeon and Dragon Magazines
A sad day for gamers. The publications of Dragon and Dungeon magazines is to cease later this year. According to this press release:
Paizo Publishing and Wizards of the Coast today announced the conclusion of Paizo’s license to produce DRAGON and DUNGEON magazines effective September 2007. Publication of DRAGON and DUNGEON will cease with issues number 359 and 150, respectively.
Wizards of the Coast wants to focus on on-line content and Paizo will focus on their own Adventure Path publication. I understand all this, but it's still kind of sad. I got my first subscription to Dragon when I was twelve with money cobbled together from various sources. I'm currently a Dungeon subscriber, as the GM materials are much more useful to me. The loss of these two excellent magazines is a loss for the entire gaming community, and certainly feels to me like the loss of a part of my childhood.
Technorati Tags: anglican, D&D, dragon, dungeon, episcopal, gaming, paizo, wizards of the coast
December 13, 2006
Jewish Paladins Apparently Not Welcome....
If you want to be a Jewish Paladin, you're apparently facing an uphill battle. Not from the forces of evil but the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). According to a ynet news article, Army frowns on Dungeons and Dragons, members of the IDF who admit to playing D&D are automatically given lower security clearances. A security official, referring to the tests administered to determine psychological fitness for a security clearance says,
"One of the tests we do, either by asking soldiers directly or through information provided us, is to ask whether they take part in the game," he says. "If a soldier answers in the affirmative, he is sent to a professional for an evaluation, usually a psychologist."
"These people have a tendency to be influenced by external factors which could cloud their judgment, a military official says. "They may be detached from reality or have a weak personality - elements which lower a person's security clearance, allowing them to serve in the army, but not in sensitive positions."
Are they making the claim that soldiers who play D&D might accept a covert command from their Dungeon Master to expose state secrets? How about this:
GM: "The Elf queen stands before you, her full amble breasts are barely covered by a thin sheen of magical elven chainmail. Se beckons you closer, saying, 'Show me the bombs of making waste that Israel denies having but both of us know they have and you will be suitably rewarded.'"
Krunk: "Do you RUE downgrading Krunk's security clearance? DO YOU RUE IT!!!????"
(A reference to Fear of Girls)
Considering all of the traditional pastimes of soldiers (i,e. drinking, wenching, gambling, brawling) you would think the Israeli army would embrace one that builds teamwork, requires thought, and stresses tactics as preferable. Evidently not. I know that D&D is very popular among our troops deployed in Iraq.
Now, I do know some D&D players who would be some pretty bad security risks, but it's them, not the D&D.
Seems like bored psychologists making up things to me.
David+
Technorati Tags: anglican, D&D, episcopal, games, military, Israel
July 26, 2006
Elite Game Masters Take Notice!
For many gamers, the video "Fear of Girls" has become part of our gaming subculture. No game would be complete without reciting at least once, "Hold, Krunk, barbarian of the frozen wastes! You shall pass no further!"
For those who have any connection to the gaming subculture and have not seen this video - do it now - it will leave you howling.
For those who have achieved "Elite Viewer" status, you will be pleased to know that Doug Douglason's module is now commercially available - The Pleasure Prison of the B'thuvian Demon Whore from Expeditious Retreat Press. It is compatible with the d20 system.
Some of my favorite quotes, "Unlike the sniveling brats of most other humanoid races, kobold babies are naturally quiet. Coupled with a rapid reproduction rate, silent babies are a tremendously useful survival mechanism."
and
"Alayshia wants Krunk to both fail and succeed. She's torn between the two outcomes and cannot win the fight with her inner nature, both demon and woman. ... Should she try and snare him for herself and use his muscle to reinforce her guile, or should she eliminate him now and take what she needs? But he's so pretty!"
It all reads like you would expect from "Doug Doug" - very funny and surprisingly playable.
David+
